In the sequence of senior Kuomintang generals, many of them were "Tianzi protégés" from Huangpu, and they all followed Chiang Kai-shek in his conquests for many years until he was defeated in Taiwan, and several of them were relatively special, and Tao Zhiyue was a relatively special one, and his special was not only his identity and seniority, but also that he was the last general in our army to join the party, and he was not able to join the party until he was 90 years old.
Tao Zhiyue led an uprising in 1949, when the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, where he ruled, was not only to avoid a war, but also to benefit the people. In fact, speaking of Tao Zhiyue himself, many people familiar with his experience will feel that he was not suitable for a position in the Kuomintang. There are many factions within the national army, fighting back and forth. In fact, Tao Zhiyue's unbridled ambition is also related to his origin, and Chiang Kai-shek's consistent employment method is to take precedence over his own disciples, that is, Huangpu Sheng, and then to his hometown. Tao Zhiyue was born in the Baoding Army Officer School in Hebei Province, so the non-concubine Tao Zhiyue was not reused for a long time.
As early as the Red Army period, Tao Zhiyue fought with the Red Army, and in 1930 Tao Zhiyue served as the brigade commander of the 24th Brigade and concurrently served as the deputy commander of the 8th Division. But the end result was that Tao Zhiyue did not have contact with the Red Army the first time, and the second time was the same. In the third time, Tao Zhiyue facilitated the Red Army to engage, but the final result was a major defeat, he led several of his cronies to escape, and later even resigned his post and ran to Changsha. This battle completely made Tao Zhiyue see the true face of the Red Army, and he was very remorseful to participate in this battle.
Since then, Tao Zhiyue has also been seriously excluded within the national army, and his full enthusiasm can only be used for open struggle and secret struggle, which is really no way to serve the country. It was not until after the outbreak of the July 7 Incident that Tao Zhiyue decisively led the Eighth Division to lead troops in Shaanxi to reinforce Shanghai. In the area around Yunzaobin, all officers and men fought with the enemy, defeated the defending enemy in one fell swoop, and held the position for more than 20 days, which made people look at each other with astonishment, thus winning the reputation of "famous anti-Japanese generals." For the kuomintang-communist united front, Tao Zhiyue has always been fully supportive, but in the end he has not been able to avoid the outbreak of civil war.
After the founding of New China, Xinjiang, ruled by Tao Zhiyue, revolted smoothly under his leadership. In 1955 he was awarded the rank of general, the highest rank of any Kuomintang rebel officer, but there was one thing in his mind that he could not let go of, that is, although he was a general, he was not a member of the Communist Party, so he applied for it in 1965, but it did not pass. Until 1982, when he applied again and finally passed, officially becoming a party member, he was already 90 years old, but it was extremely happy for Tao Zhiyue.